Optimisation and application of a novel method to identify bacteriophage in maternal milk and infant stool. Preterm milk virome validation

We have developed a lab method to isolate temperate and lytic bacteriophage from both maternal breast milk (BM) and stools acquired from preterm infants at risk of GI/nutritional complications. Our optimised protocol maximises nucleic acid yield and captures greater phage diversity, By combining these methods with already validated bacterial characterisation techniques we show similarities between the phage carriage in BM and preterm infant stools which highlights avenues for exploring host-phage specificity throughout the preterm infant gut. Future research will see us apply these techniques to ID phage community signatures associated with modulation of the preterm gut microbiota in health and disease.